“As for the article, much has changed in 32 years and much has not. The essential argument holds: no set of realistically achievable geographic borders produces safety for Israel. Rather, the security requirement is that any of the territory taken in the Six-Day War and given back as part of a peace settlement should be effectively demilitarized. Of course, the Sinai Peninsula was returned to Egypt long ago in exactly this way, resulting in relative quiet along Israel's southern border and creating a fundamental shift in the regional balance of forces. This opportunity was not skillfully exploited, so the result has been a "cold peace."”

But it is nevertheless peace and has served the interests of both sides.
How to Secure Israel: Demilitarized land for peace is the key to a settlement (April 2008)

Adopted from Wikiquote. Last update June 3, 2021. History

Help us to complete the source, original and additional information

Do you have more details about the quote "As for the article, much has changed in 32 years and much has not. The essential argument holds: no set of realisticall…" by Merrill McPeak?
Merrill McPeak photo
Merrill McPeak 6
United States Air Force general 1936

Related quotes

Desmond Tutu photo

“I believe Israel has a right to secure borders.”

Desmond Tutu (1931) South African churchman, politician, archbishop, Nobel Prize winner

Speech in Boston (2002)
Context: In our struggle against apartheid, the great supporters were Jewish people. They almost instinctively had to be on the side of the disenfranchised, of the voiceless ones, fighting injustice, oppression and evil. I have continued to feel strongly with the Jews. I am patron of a Holocaust centre in South Africa. I believe Israel has a right to secure borders.
What is not so understandable, not justified, is what it did to another people to guarantee its existence. I've been very deeply distressed in my visit to the Holy Land; it reminded me so much of what happened to us black people in South Africa.

Menachem Begin photo

“Palestinians! This is an unacceptable reference. Jews are also Palestinians. He must mean 'Palestinian Arabs'.
Conquered territory! Gaza was also conquered by Egypt
Sinai settlements! There is a national consensus in Israel that the settlements must stay!”

Menachem Begin (1913–1992) Israeli politician and Prime Minister

"Keeping Faith: Memoirs of a President" page 355 https://books.google.ca/books?id=c-hncyLhPjoC&pg=PA355 by Jimmy Carter

Shimon Peres photo
Nelson Mandela photo

“I cannot conceive of Israel withdrawing if the Arab states do not recognize Israel, within secure borders.”

Nelson Mandela (1918–2013) President of South Africa, anti-apartheid activist

Suzanne Belling, "Mandela bears message of peace in first visit to Israel", http://www.jewishsf.com/content/2-0-/module/displaystory/story_id/12309/edition_id/237/format/html/displaystory.html jweekly.com, 22 October 1999
Attributed

Noam Chomsky photo

“Personally I'm very much opposed to Hamas' policies in almost every respect. However, we should recognize that the policies of Hamas are more forthcoming and more conducive to a peaceful settlement than those of the United States or Israel. … So, for example, Hamas has called for a long-term indefinite truce on the international border. There is a long-standing international consensus that goes back over thirty years that there should be a two-state political settlement on the international border, the pre-June 1967 border, with minor and mutual modifications. That's the official phrase. Hamas is willing to accept that as a long-term truce. The United States and Israel are unwilling even to consider it… The demand on Hamas by the United States and the European Union and Israel […] is first that they recognize the State of Israel. Actually, that they recognize its right to exist. Well, Israel and the U. S. certainly don't recognize the right of Palestine to exist, nor recognize any state of Palestine. In fact, they have been acting consistently to undermine any such possibility. The second condition is that Hamas must renounce violence. Israel and the United States certainly do not renounce violence. The third condition is that Hamas accept international agreements. The United States and Israel reject international agreements. So, though the policies of Hamas are, again in my view, unacceptable, they happen to be closer to the international consensus on a political peaceful settlement than those of their antagonists, and it's a reflection of the power of the imperial states - the United States and Europe - that they are able to shift the framework, so that the problem appears to be Hamas' policies, and not the more extreme policies of the United States and Israel… And we must remember that in their case it's not just policies. It's not words - it's actions.”

Noam Chomsky (1928) american linguist, philosopher and activist

Interview on LBC TV, May 23, 2006 http://www.memritv.org/Transcript.asp?P1=1152
Quotes 2000s, 2006

Barack Obama photo

“Any agreement with the Palestinian people must preserve Israel's identity as a Jewish state, with secure, recognized and defensible borders. Jerusalem will remain the capital of Israel, and it must remain undivided.”

Barack Obama (1961) 44th President of the United States of America

Speech at AIPAC Policy Conference (4 June 2008) http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=91150432&ft=1&f=1102
2008

Shimon Peres photo
Anthony Crosland photo
Norman G. Finkelstein photo
Ismail Haniyeh photo

“The answer is to let Israel say it will recognize a Palestinian state along the 1967 borders, release the prisoners, and recognize the rights of the refugees to return to Palestine. Hamas will have a position if this occurs.”

Ismail Haniyeh (1963) Palestinian politician

Interview with Washington Post. "We Do Not Wish to Throw Them Into the Sea" http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2006/02/24/AR2006022402317_pf.html. Washington Post. February 26, 2006

Related topics